Tote Bags, T’s and Other Tops

Sublimation is the chemical process of a substance going from a solid state to a gaseous state without going through the normal intermediary liquid state. Dry ice which is frozen carbon dioxide gas is a well known example of this process.
What is the connection between this chemical process and “Tote Bags, T’s and Other Tops”? Well, sublimation is a printing process that can be used on certain types of fabric and other substrates. Powdered dyes are held in suspension in a liquid base, and specially modified bubble jet printers squirt a mirror image of the final print onto a transfer medium. After it has dried, the transfer medium is attached with heat resistant tape to the final product to be printed, both are then placed in a special heat press. Temperatures and pressures vary depending upon the substrate, but typical settings for “Tote Bags, T’s and Other Tops” is one hundred and ninety degrees Celsius for about three minutes and reasonably high pressure. The result is that the heat and pressure cause the powdered dyes to sublimate into gases which become incorporated as a part of the fabric. Sublimated prints require specialised equipment and are more labour intensive than regular printing like canvas prints, in which the ink is sprayed onto the surface of the fabric, but the result is more permanent with stronger colours.

The images in this post are among the many that I have designed and uploaded to my Red Bubble artists site. I have been a member of Red Bubble for well over nine years, but most of my activity on the site has been fairly recent. If you click on the link you will be taken to my profile page where you will see examples of my art work and photography, all of which can be incorporated into products that can be purchased. Clicking on any graphic in particular, will take you to a page showing all the products available with that graphic. Many of Red Bubble’s products are printed using the sublimation printing method, and of course you are welcome to purchase any of the products listed on the site. However, I do own my own sublimation printers and heat presses, and can therefore produce many of the products listed on the Red Bubble site, in addition to many others, but for a fraction of the cost.
The originals of all the graphics on the Red Bubble site I have on my own external hard drives and am able to access reasonably quickly. Also, I enjoy dabbling in graphic art and produce new examples each week. Any photograph I have taken as well as all the art I have produced can be sublimated printed onto, “Tote Bags, T’s and Other Tops”. And, of course many other products such as mugs, tiles, aluminium sheets, cross word puzzles. Below are prices listed for some products.

If you compare these prices with those on Red Bubble, you will find that they are about one third of the cost or even better in some cases. Why the two prices for each product? Well, the first price is the cost of any product for which the art work has not been done already. This includes any photograph not already published, with or without words. For these products, if five or more are ordered, then the second listed prices will apply. The second price also applies to all products for which the art work has already been completed. So, all of the graphics on the Red Bubble site will of course fall into this category.
All these products are white. If you want coloured tops you will need to purchase them from the Red Bubble site. For high definition sublimation prints, the best fabric is 100% polyester. I need to pre-purchase the blanks before I can produce any final products. So, you have the choice of white or white. Most of the graphics on the Red Bubble site I have already printed onto small and large sized Tote Bags. If you are interested in seeing any of these and we are likely to be meeting up for a photo shoot for example, remind me to put them in my vehicle before we meet.

The September 2017 edition of Petography Magazine has just been published. You will notice that a couple of the graphics I have placed in this posting mention the magazine. The cost of promoting anything can be expensive; but I consider Tote Bags, T-Shirts, Tank Tops and Crop Tops with a mention of Petography Magazine and its web site being seen in public as walking promotions. I am therefore willing to drastically cut the price on these products to half of the first mentioned price for each product in the list above. This deal extends to all of the Petography products which have already been produced or any photograph taken for the Petography Magazine with the added wording “featured in Petography Magazine” and “www.petographymagazine.com”.

That makes Tote Bags for as little as $5.00 and all tops for only $12.50.

For all orders, 50% payment is required with the order, with the balance being paid upon delivery.

If you have not already downloaded a copy of the September issue of Petography Magazine, it is available now for immediate download for only US$2.50. Click on the link to get your copy.

I have several hard copies which are perfect bound. You can save on the shipping cost and US exchange rate by getting one directly from me at a cost of AU$20.00.

Photographers and others with original art work, if you would like any of the above listed products, I would be happy to organise them for you. The second listed price would apply, but there would need to be a minimum order of five products, (can be assorted), for each piece of art work. The art work can be either PNG or JPEG, but must have a resolution of 300dpi or better. The art work and order can be emailed to editor@flippagemags.com.